Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of schools in the United States (0th nomination)

List of schools in the United States was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was keep (no consensus to delete was reached).

List of schools in the United States
Even more frightening a prospect than List of schools in Washington. RickK 23:40, Sep 26, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete before it spreads.   &mdash; Gwalla | Talk 23:56, 26 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Not at all encyclopedic. Author should be hit with a fish. --Improv 00:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Could be useful for some individuals looking for it, though the words "this is not a comprehensive list" need to be written all over the place. --DMG413 01:03, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. ugen64 01:23, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Talk:List of schools in the United States/Delete. This is the THIRD listing of this article. (No vote yet) WhisperToMe 02:25, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Oh, btw, I'm gonna move this so ALL of the previous VFD discussions are shown. WhisperToMe 02:27, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, using a fish is too kind. RedWolf 02:33, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, and reinstate the links. I really don't see what's the problem with this, as long as only notable schools are listed, and this currently seems to be the case.    [[Image:Cow.gif|User:Cow]] 03:07, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep, at least until we reach a point where we have a policy against long lists of things. --Alex Krupp 03:20, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Also, I agree with   [[Image:Cow.gif|User:Cow]]:  reinstate the links.  This simply looks like the originator has made the page useless to help it get deleted.  Sahasrahla 03:24, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. I concur with   [[Image:Cow.gif|User:Cow]] .  This list is fine if it only contains notable schools. -- J3ff 05:11, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Yes it should contain notable schools, and thats just asking for an argument over what is POV.  Aren't lists like these what categories were created for? -- Chuq 07:10, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. We don't want to encourage high school pages, and I fear this might. At best make a category for existing schools. Cool Hand Luke  07:37, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. Some High Schools have already been "kept", and some more will be kept in the future. Why not have a list of them?  And eventually, I foresee that all schools will stay.--AAAAA 16:00, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Stop this, it's silly. Either the list is going to be selective, in which case it is incorrectly titled, or it is either going to be far too large, or incomplete. Perhaps redirect to List of notable schools in the United States in an attempt to make some people think before adding their bogstandard High School (note - I went to a bogstandard High School). Average Earthman 12:54, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * I don't see what's wrong with incomplete. I think Wikipedia was, is and will ALWAYS be incomplete.  So what?--AAAAA 13:01, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Another list the looks like it intends to be complete, but won't ever be. Any current high school articles within Wikipedia should be so categorized, which creates an automatic list of articles within Wikipedia about high schools, a list automatically maintained. If, in the far future, Wikipedia becomes granular enough that all high school articles are kept, then the category list will update itself accordingly. So what is the purpose of this one. Change it to a list of "notable" schools, whether there is an article or not? Who decides which ones are notable? Might change my vote to Keep if some clear criteria appeared within the article as to exactly what schools should be listed or if there are clear sources which can be consulted to update a complete list. Jallan 14:25, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep - SimonP 16:32, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Make a category for the notable school articles.  -- WOT 19:17, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * There is a Category:High schools -- J3ff 21:31, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Comment. The category only shows the names of the schools for which articles exist.  The list can also include schools that do not (yet) have articles about them.--Ëzhiki (erinaceus europeaus) 16:57, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep- It's just a list. We have other lists. Saopaulo1
 * Comment:. How does this argument differ from: "It's just an article. We have other articles"? Or "It's just some words, we have other words"? Jallan 14:22, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * comment We have many lists. This is a harmless list and none of the schools are links, so we wont have the potential for 1000s of school articles. This isnt some dumb list. We have lists of magazines, papers, channels etc... Saopaulo1
 * Comment. It looks to me like a dumb list, one that won't ever be updated properly. Jallan 22:16, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep - we have lists of fictional cats. The Recycling Troll 03:17, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete - I'm not particularly against school pages, but I doubt this page could ever possibly list every school in the United States, and including only notable schools deemed worthy of articles is severely POV. Sarge Baldy 12:13, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep &mdash; informative and usable. The list should be expanded to become truly useful, of course.--Ëzhiki (erinaceus europeaus) 20:33, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete - This may take up memory in the database.- B-101 16:50, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Besides, I think it would be impossible to have a complete list of schools in the country.- B-101 13:41, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. RickK is right - this is frightening!  EVERY school - good, bad, ugly, you name it - in the ENTIRE United States?  That would be a list of tens of thousands of schools. . .  and Wikipedia is not a directory.  OTOH, if the title would be List of notable schools in (insert state name here) I might go for that.  Ditto for List of California Distinguished Schools - a precise term recognized and used by the California Superintendent of Schools.  There just has to be a way to have "bite sized" information on Wikipedia that is useful and non-overwhelming.  This doesn't meet that test by a mile.  --avnative 18:08, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete Probably a hundred thousand entries. A new category for schools which have articles might be more useful, but I doubt it because it might list  1% of American schools. --Jll 00:22, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * As of 2000, it was 95,000 . -- Cyrius|&#9998; 23:35, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete for the reasons given by Avnative and Jll. --G Rutter 19:48, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Wile E. Heresiarch 07:55, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Possible exhaustive list in the future. --*drew 08:00, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Are all these schools meant to be notable, and if so should we not be told why they are? Perhaps a wellknown person was educated in one, or they really have a fantastic library in another? Otherwise surely they are not encyclopaedic and we should delete them. Yes. Delete. Unless notability notified.Dieter Simon 23:04, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete - this is a job for categories. -- Cyrius|&#9998; 23:35, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * This is just what categories are for. Delete and do fish-slapping dance for reason given by Cyrius.--Bishonen 23:52, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Repeating comment. The category only shows the names of the schools for which articles exist.  The list can also include schools that do not (yet) have articles about them.--Ëzhiki (erinaceus europeaus) 17:11, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep! Mark Richards 15:51, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep. An effective way to develop a corpus of thousands of entries - and there are thousands of interesting schools, as there are movies, books, comic series, songs, etc - is to have nested lists, with a top-level list that splits off and links to sublists when they reach a critical mass.  Having a "global list of schools" with a separate page for each country with over 40 or 50 schools (and, within the US, a separate page for each state of that type), is useful.  This list leaves room for a few words about each list entry, one of the many ways categories aren't up to the task. +sj +  12:52, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.